Published on 18/07/2024
Rt. Hon. Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, Uganda’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Community Affairs, urged her fellow countrymen to adopt Kiswahili emphasizing its crucial role in regional integration.
Addressing Kiswahili cadres at the National Leadership Institute-Kyankwanzi, she highlighted Uganda’s need to catch up with its neighbors in mastering the Kiswahili language, underscoring its significance for national and regional cohesion.
“When you go to Congo, they speak Kiswahili, when you to Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, and elsewhere, Kiswahili is the commonest language, but our Ugandans would lose out whenever they interact with Kiswahili communities in the region,” she said.
She revealed plans by the Ministry for East African Community Affairs to rollout the national Kiswahili programme by establishing other Training Centres across the country.
“We are finalizing plans to roll out the Kiswahili teaching programme to all the districts of Uganda. Currently, the main learning centre is the NRM Secretariat which can’t accommodate everyone. We see people traveling from all over the country to Kampala just to learn Kiswahili, so we are accelerating universal access to Kiswahili learning and teaching when these centres are operational,” she said.
The First Deputy Prime Minister further told the Cadres to prepare for the trip to Tanzania in the coming month of August, and finally the graduation ceremony in September which shall be presided over by President Yoweri Museveni.
“We are taking the cadres to Tanzania to enable them interact with the real Kiswahili environment. This will be a test of how much you have learnt in all these months,” she emphasized.
Kadaga appreciated President Yoweri Museveni for supporting the Kiswahili programme from the time it has been running, including supporting the ongoing Retreat in Kyankwanzi.
The cadres were led by the Mr Stephen Bwire, who is the national coordinator for the Kiswahili programme.
